BENGALURU: Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah has increased visits to mutts and temples, apparently eyeing Hindu votes ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections. Over the last few weeks, he visited temples in Madikeri, Chikkamagaluru and Badami, and also the Rambhapuri Mutt and other mutts.
BJP, which wins polls largely because of the support of the majority Hindu community, may have felt threatened by Siddaramaiah’s sudden interest in temples.
Go Madhusudan, a former BJP MLC, said, "It is true that he is visiting more temples. Many of them are Lingayat-Veerashaiva temples. He visited the Rambhapuri Swamiji and also the Kodlipet temple, which is a prominent Lingayat temple. This is an attempt to win back Lingayat constituents who are assumed to have gone away from Congress."
On Tuesday, Siddaramaiah said, "I have gone to temples in Tirupati, Chamundi Hills, MM Hills and at my village. But I believe that there is only one God everywhere."
A member of the Dandu family, which is close to Siddaramaiah, said, “Whenever Siddaramaiah has filed his nomination papers before elections, he has visited temples. He went to the Chamundeshwari temple in 2018 and also in 2006 when he contested the bitterly fought Chamundeshwari bypoll and won by a thin margin of 258 votes against the JDS candidate. Just that, he does not make a show of his temple visits.”
Political analyst BS Murthy said, “The political narrative in the state has been dominated by Siddaramaiah. From his hugely successful birthday bash to his visits to temples and religious mutts over the last four weeks, it is a new Siddaramaiah we are witnessing now. The frequency of visits too has been high. As compared to his term as chief minister, the optics of Siddaramaiah’s visits to Lingayat mutts and temples stand out now. The front foot play by Siddaramaiah to build a positive narrative among Lingayat voters has unnerved BJP, forcing them to resort to criticising his food habits. One can clearly see that BJP is on the backfoot.’’
Congress senior leader Rahul Gandhi too has been peddling soft Hindutva by increasing his temple visits since 2014. KPCC president DK Shivakumar has had a penchant for visiting temples and has done so more number of times than his predecessors Dinesh Gundurao, Dr G Parameshwara and RV Deshpande.